PixlBit

Let PixlBit get you up to speed on all things Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2!

Final Fantasy XIII is the story of two worlds that are eternally at odds with one another. On one side, there’s the artificial satellite of Cocoon; a Dyson Sphere-like world full of technology and modern convenience. It is ruled by the Sanctum, a government that doubles as the religious body for Cocoon.

Cocoon orbits high above the surface of Gran Pulse; a lush, untamed wilderness filled with exotic flora and fauna of all types, with very few people to call it home. Both Cocoon and Pulse were created eons ago by the fal’Cie, mysterious creatures with vast, godlike powers. The fal’Cie come in all shapes and sizes and reflect the worlds that they created. The fal’Cie that created and continue to maintain Cocoon look like machines of an alien design, while the fal’Cie on Pulse are decidedly more organic in appearance and nature.

For the most part, the fal’Cie do not interfere with the lives of the humans that inhabit their worlds, but from time to time they need to deputize agents to work on their behalf. These unfortunate souls are branded by the fal’Cie that calls them into service and become l’Cie. L’Cie are granted great powers, including the ability to wield magic, but they gain these gifts at a heavy price. Each l’Cie has a Focus that he or she must complete for the fal’Cie - a mission that can only end in one of two ways. Either the l’Cie fails and transforms into an abomination known as Cie’th, or the l’Cie succeeds in fulfilling the Focus and transforms into a crystal. In Cocoon, human contact with anyone or anything from Gran Pulse is reason enough to banish the “corrupted” citizens.

This is the fate that befalls our heroes, as they are all present when a dormant Pulse fal’Cie is found in the town of Bodhum. Lightning, along with our ragtag group of protagonists, rebels against the attempted purging of Bodhum. Snow, who is engaged to Lightning’s younger sister Serah, learns that his fiancée has been branded a Pulse l’Cie and tries to save her. He finds Serah just in time to witness her transform into crystal, her Focus complete. He encounters Hope, Lightning, and Sazh and the entire group becomes branded l’Cie. They don’t know what their Focus is, other than the fact that it has to do with Ragnarok; the destruction of Cocoon. The unlikely band of heroes believes that they need to stop this destruction from happening.

Their adventure takes them all over Cocoon, as the party tries to keep ahead of the Sanctum soldiers who will execute Pulse l’Cie on sight. They run afoul of Primarch Dysley, the ruler of the Sanctum. Dysley turns out to be a powerful Pulse fal’Cie by the name of Barthandelus. Barthandelus has actually been trying to help the group to fulfill their Focus, but their mission is not what they thought it was. Their Focus is to destroy Cocoon, rather than save it.

Eventually the party ends up on the untamed paradise world of Gran Pulse as they look for a way out of their Focus.  They travel to Oerba, the hometown of their compatriots Vanille and Fang. While on Pulse many secrets are revealed. Fang and Vanille confess that they were given a Focus to destroy Cocoon. Fang took on the mantle of Ragnarok in order to carry out the Focus, but only managed to damage the outer shell before the two of them turned into crystal. Barthandelus wants his l’Cie to carry out the mission at last. One among the group must become Ragnarok and destroy Orphan, a fal’Cie that is at the heart of Cocoon. Once Orphan is destroyed, the millions of lives that will be snuffed out in an instant will call forth the Creator of the world.

At last, in a final act of defiance, the group faces off against Barthandelus one last time. After a harrowing battle, Barthandelus is defeated, but is reborn as Orphan. Fang once again becomes Ragnarok to save Vanille, but she is unable to destroy Orphan. Lightning and company rally back and reject their Focus by sheer force of will. They defeat Orphan, but Cocoon begins to descend towards Pulse in the aftermath. Fang and Vanille merge into a much more powerful version of the creature Ragnarok, and sacrifice themselves, creating a massive crystal tower that extends from the surface of Pulse up towards Cocoon, holding it up. Our heroes lose their l’Cie brands, and Serah (along with Sazh’s son) return to life. And everyone lives happily ever after.

Or do they? Final Fantasy XIII-2 shows a future where the crystal spire crumbles and Cocoon crashes into Pulse, turning the world into a wasteland. It will be up to Serah and her new friend Noel to keep this tragedy from happening.